Complaints were circulating about a multimedia guide in microwave engineering written by Dr. Francesco Fornetti, who works at the University of Bristol as teaching fellow. It is being sold on Amazon for about $100 now: https://www.amazon.com/Conquer-Radio-Frequency-Multimedia-Engineering/dp/095766351X I have been asked to write a critique about the textbook of the multimedia guide; send it to concerned parties, and publish it on the internet.

I regret to inform you that Mr. Fornetti has written so many, and so grave errors and wrong explanations on the first 50 pages (see the proof on the website below) that it was meaningless to read the rest of the book and write a complete evaluation. The essence of the critique is that Mr. Fornetti is incompetent as a scientific textbook author and as teacher of Electrical Engineering. The great number and the severity of the errors he committed prove that he does not possess the level of knowledge his degrees would demand. An undergraduate student of EE could write a better textbook than this.

The errors have been pointed out and corrected in the critique of his book “Conquer Radio Frequency” which can be found at:

https://conquerrf.wordpress.com/#story

The review has been sent to the dean of Bristol University, and also to the head of department of electrical engineering and to other professors there on 25th October. Two professors responded right away just briefly, like acknowledging that they have received the review. However, the people who supposed to take action, the dean and the head of EE department did not respond till today. There is no sign of any action taken by the faculty management. I am curious if they will ever mend the damage done by Francesco; or rather let the incompetence continue teaching the students more incompetence.

I have also sent the review to the two corporations AWR and Wolfspeed, who financed the creation, promotion, and selling of the multimedia package. A gentleman from Wolfspeed responded very briefly that they will take the complaint seriously, however there is no sign at all of any action taken by them either. AWR on the other hand did not even respond.

Few closing remarks about the nature of this scandal. Among more than a dozen of serious errors, wrong formulas, and false explanations, Francesco has described an ideal inductor to be able to maintain a current flow out of one of its terminals, while no current enters into its other terminal. He also claimed that voltage is not a physical quantity, and that at low frequencies the power is not transmitted by electromagnetic fields. I hope you understand how mind-boggling nonsense these are. The mentioned errors are only samplings from the first 48 pages, and there are many more errors in the rest of the book, which contains about 200 pages.

I sincerely hope that something can be done to prevent future publishing of pseudoscience in the name of real science, backed by academic positions and degrees. The competence of new generations and the good reputations of universities and academic degrees are at stake. Students and their parents pay a lot of money for higher studies and they deserve quality education provided by competent teachers. They are our future and we have to protect their interests.

Joe D.